Go On, Scream
by nanonaut
Summary: He's always feared banshees. Her grandmother is one. Why is it, then, that she seems more afraid of herself than he is?
1. The Decision

**Author's Note: I would like to give cover credit to michellemonique on deviantArt.**

Audriell knew very well that the only reason her mother had not thrown her from her house was that she was afraid it would be a death sentence. Dria's life was, in that moment, the only thing that could possibly have stood in the way of her mother's anger.

"Audriell! Please, be reasonable. You know what everyone is saying. England isn't safe anymore. You can put off your last two years of school, if you really insist on staying at that blasted Hogwarts of yours. Or I heard that Vanderbilt is a lovely school, and I happen to have a friend who is a relative of the headmistress there."

Really, Dria was almost as astounded as her mum about her insistence on staying in England. But going to America was the coward's way, and she refused to abandon Sara like that. Even before all of this Voldemort's-return nonsense started up, she had managed to get herself into all sorts of trouble. The girl had no sense of self preservation and worse, no ability to defend herself. Did Dria's mom really think Dria would go off to America, knowing that?

"Mother, you know that this isn't about Hogwarts." She sat down on her bed, exhausted. Her trunk was already packed and everything that she wasn't taking with her was already in their new house, the one her father had bought in America. The train would be leaving from King's Cross in an hour. Her mother's desperation was increasing exponentially. Dria was glad for it, as selfish as that was, because it gave her something to focus on other than her own fears.

This year, Hogwarts was going to be different. She knew that. It wasn't going to be a place of brightness and safety, not anymore. This whole country was slowly becoming a war zone.

"I'm just going to be so worried. You must promise me that you'll write every single day. If not, I'll show up at your school, see if I don't."

"I will," Audriell promised for the dozenth time.

Her bedroom door creaked open and her father walked in. "If we don't leave now, you'll miss your train." He turned stiffly away, but she caught a bit of his expression. He looked drained. His usually vibrant red eyes, the identical images of her own, even seemed a little washed out. Dria straightened her shoulders and heaved up my trunk. Someone had to be strong enough to keep up the charade of normalcy around here. That would just have to be her.

Audriell couldn't find Morag anywhere on the train and it was scheduled to depart in two minutes. She made herself put away her watch, knowing that watching it was only going to make her more nervous. She tried to remember the last time that she had heard from him. Was it two days ago? No, that had been his sister's birthday and she remembered him telling her that in lieu of a present, Isobel had asked to borrow his owl for a few days. So was it four days ago? Five?

In any case, it was more than enough time for something dreadful to have happened.

Terry Boot, a close companion of Morag's, was watching Dria with no small amount of amusement. He always treated her like some sort of pet, or else like she was there for the sole purpose of his entertainment. She hated it, but tolerated him for Mo's sake. Besides, Sara was strangely fond of him.

Dria glanced at Sara, who was in the seat to her left. Even now she was leaning forward in her seat, eagerly taking in everything around her. What her eyes fixed on most frequently, though, was Terry.

Just as the train was firing up, the door to her compartment was thrown open, revealing her other best friend, huffing slightly but looking just as well as the last time she had seen him. In the same instant, Audriell had thrown herself off of her seat and at him. He laughed softly but held her just as tightly as she held him. Mo had known that she would be anxious. After all, he had been, too.

Audriell caught a glimpse of Isobel standing behind him, chatting with someone. She recognized the voice and stiffened. Mo released his hold on her and tried to spin her around so that she was safely back in the compartment, but Dria was having none of that. She ducked under his arm and found herself standing face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy Stretton.

Dria bit back a groan. Proudly displayed on his vest was a shining new Head Boy badge. Mo's hand wrapped around her waist, and though Jeremy was looking pointedly only at her eyes, Dria knew that this did not escape his notice. Her closeness with her best friend had, in fact, been a large part of their break up.

"Had a good summer, did you?" she asked, sounding slightly breathless. Isobel was grinning brightly- she always had loved watching encounters like this one. She enjoyed others' discomfort.

"Yeah, I did. Er- how's your fanged geranium doing?" he asked, grasping at the back of his neck self-consciously.

"Its teeth finally grew back in. Thanks for remembering." Jeremy seemed at a loss for what to say next, so he looked desperately at Isobel.

"I suppose I could have mercy on you," she said to him in a faux-whisper before turning to Audriell and her brother. "We'd best be going. See you at the feast!"

They returned to the compartment, sitting side by side, quite close together. Terry, grinning widely, said to them, "That was more awkward than family dinner last Sunday, when my gran mixed up her bunion potion with the soup and served it to the Minister's nephew."

Mo laughed appreciatively. "That's got nothing on what my father did..."

Dria let her thoughts wander while the boys exchanged increasingly disgusting stories. She didn't want to admit it to any of them, but she was starting to get a roiling, nasty feeling in her stomach. One that made her question whether Hogwarts had really been the best place for her this year.


	2. Confrontation

Probably the best part of making it to sixth year, Dria thought, was that you became one of only a handful of students studying a subject at that level. There were only twelve students enrolled, for example, in her Potions class. In fact, she had always rather enjoyed potion brewing- note, not the classes themselves. Snape rather ruined them for her.

Professor Slughorn, though, seemed positively delightful, if a little too caught up in his connections. It was inevitable, really, that Potions become her favorite class fairly early on in the year. Maybe that was why things happened the way that they did.

See, her father had always told her that her nerves were what would eventually bring out the banshee blood in her. It would take a combination of inner tension and outer emotion- emotions, you see, that could be leeched from others. Emotions for her to feed off of. It was the fear of this happening in school, in fact, that had made going off to America with her family so tempting. It was the only reason that she might have left Hogwarts behind.

Here's what happened. Audriell was doodling in the margins of her book, waiting for instructions from Professor Slughorn. She was always early, see. It helped her to keep her head. Calmness had been her ultimate goal for quite some time now, ever since the day that her father had explained just how drastically a lot of tension could impact her life. Sometimes, though, it doesn't matter whether you avoid tension. Sometimes, it finds you.

This was not the first fight that Dria had witnessed between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Nor was it, she felt sure, going to be the last. This one, though, is the one that set her over the edge. The worst part of it was that Dria never did find out what it was they were fighting about. Draco followed Harry into the room and shoved him a bit in passing. Harry glared but, at a quelling look from Hermione, headed toward his seat.

Then Draco threw a curse at him. Harry blocked it and responded with one of his own, one that gave Malfoy a spectacular purple, scaled complexion. Draco's retaliation missed Harry and came zooming at Audriell, barely missing her left ear. It was probably that instant of fear that did it.

Suddenly, she could feel everyone around her. She took in Hermione's tension, Ron's excitement, Pansy's distress. She took in the teacher's moment of panic when he walked out of his office and was confronted with a duel.

Most of all, she felt Harry's outrage and Draco's hate. She drank in the emotions, but it was the outrage, the righteousness that was coming from Harry that was the strongest. Of course, then, it was he who collapsed on the floor. The shock of it all is what snapped Dria out of it. She ran over to him, scarcely realizing what had happened. It wasn't until Professor Dumbledore had walked in and kindly asked her to follow him that it hit her: she had just consumed people's emotions. She was dangerous.

found out that there would be none. She was to get away with this infraction, considering the circumstances, according to Dumbledore.

"You must realize, Miss Everett, that if you don't learn to control yourself, you will not be permitted to stay here." Dria's stomach sank. She had expected as much, but that made his words hurt no less. Her mother would be thrilled, she thought ruefully, if she was kicked out of Hogwarts.

"I don't know how to control it," Audriell confessed.

"And why should you? You have never had to before. I'll give you a little tip, though. What you did back there, it was a promising start. I daresay Harry will be up and causing trouble again before dinnertime tonight. You were both very lucky, this time." Then Dumbledore stood and nodded at Dria. She understood that she was to leave and scurried out of his office.

Audriell's only thought was to get to the Hospital Wing, to see whether Harry really was alright. She didn't know how she would forgive herself if she wasn't.

As she ran through the halls, Dria noticed that people were looking at her strangely. They were backing against the wall as she approached, their faces blank with fear. A glimpse she caught of herself in a particularly well-polished suit of armor told her why. She was positively glowing. Her eyes were the brightest of reds, her skin was luminescent even in the low candlelight of the corridor she was in. Her red hair looked like it was crackling with electricity.

Seeing herself this way, even the distorted version of herself showing in the helmet of the armor, was too much for Audriell just then. She turned away and ran even faster.

Standing outside of the Hospital Wing, looking almost like a guard, was Dean Thomas, accompanied by Sara.

"What's going on?" Dean demanded.

Sara shot him a look and flung her arms around Audriell. "That can wait for later, no need to worry about it now. Honey, how are you feeling?"

Dria pulled away and stepped toward the Hospital Wing. "Better than Harry is, I'd wager." She drew in a shaking breath. The worst part of all of this was that she was, underneath the panic and shame, feeling better than she ever had in her life. This was a whole new kind of awake. She felt that the Patronus Charm, whose casting was her biggest goal, would almost be too easy were she to attempt it right now.

She would not, though. It would be too much like cheating. Dria moved to open the door and Dean's hand shot out, wrapping around her arm. "I wouldn't go in there just now. Seamus has taken it upon himself to watch over Harry."

Dria's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Seamus? Seamus Finnegan, you mean?"

"Who else? Point is, he knows more about banshees than anyone else around here- spent his whole childhood deathly afraid of them, you know- and he feels he owes it to Harry to make certain that this doesn't happen again."

"That's ridiculous," Sara cut in. "Dria would never-"

Dria shook her head. "That's just it, Sara. I did."

"Yeah, but not by choice!" Audriell found her friend's unswerving loyalty touching, but was getting exasperated. She exchanged looks with Dean, rolling her eyes. "I know how bad you want in there. You can just pop in and leave as soon as you've seen for yourself that Harry's alright. Quick and harmless."

Before she could think on it too much more, Dria burst through the doorway and rushed to Harry's bedside. She was so quick that Seamus was only half out of his seat before she was standing by Harry's bedside.

"You aren't welcome here," Seamus said in a biting voice.

Harry, who was quite awake and simply looking paler than usual, shook his head. "Seamus, it's fine. I've been wanting to talk to her."

"But didn't I tell you-"

"Something about banshees, yes. But I would rather hear it from her just now."

At this, Seamus swore lightly and stormed out of the room. "Don't mind him," Harry assured her. "He'll come 'round."

"I'm not worried about him, I'm worried about you. I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"What exactly happened, anyway?"

Feeling that she at least owed him as much of an explanation as she could give, Audriell launched into the story of her grandmother, a banshee, and her father's experiences as a half breed. "None of us were really sure how the blood would manifest in me," Dria finished, "so this has all come as a bit of a shock. Gran insisted that it would happen, but I guess I've been in denial. I should have been more prepared, I should have quit before I drained so much of you."

"What, exactly, did you drain?" Harry asked, looking a little off color.

"Your emotions. But my father warned me, if you take too much from one person, they go into a sort of shock. I should have known better."

"Stop saying that, would you?" Dria bit her tongue.

"Alright. I suppose I can apologize to you again later. For now, I think I had better try to get some rest." Harry nodded and Dria got the idea that he was relieved she had decided to leave.

When she was almost out the door, Harry called after her, "Thank you for coming to see me, and for explaining."

She forced a smile for him and said, "I really hope that you feel better soon. Good night."

After what Audriell thought of subsequently as That Day, she was treated like a pariah. All except her very closest friends took to avoiding her in the halls. They went quiet whenever she was anywhere near, giving Audriell the distinct impression she was a frequent topic of conversation. It was no less than she deserved, she thought, and took this without complaint.

The disturbing bit of it was that ever since That Day, she had grown increasingly sensitive to people's emotions. She could feel them all the time now, a constant hum. She went to bed every night feeling overstimulated and exhausted from it all, and from the effort it took not to feed on the emotions around her.

Harry had, of course, made a full, quick recovery and had even taken to asking after her own health. She supposed that she was looking a little shell shocked these days, and acting a little jumpy.

Another change, and the single most aggravating one, was that Seamus Finnegan had taken to trailing her around. Rather than avoiding her like everyone else, he seemed to have taken it upon himself to make quite sure that she was behaving herself. It didn't help that he was in half of her classes.

Eventually, it was too much for Audriell to handle. She was barely sleeping, she hadn't been able to get in touch with her family in the past week, and the pile of schoolwork that needed doing was increasing alarmingly fast. It was not a question of whether she would blow up on someone, but a question of when.

Unfortunately, the person who took the fall-out from all of the pressure that Dria had been feeling from herself and others was Seamus. He had been walking innocently enough behind her- after all, they had Charms together next, so why should they not be heading in the same direction?- except that he had waited outside of the girl's bathroom while she and Sara freshened up.

When she saw this, Audriell marched over to where he had been leaning casually against the wall and stood in front of him, seething.

"Need something?" he asked infuriatingly.

"Yeah, actually, I do." Seamus lifted a single brow and waited. Dria, who had always hated confrontation, swallowed before continuing. "I don't want you following me anymore."

"I can walk wherever I please," he said coldly. "I'll thank you not to try and stop me."

"This is getting ridiculous. I didn't mind so much at first, Seamus. I was actually a little grateful. You made me feel like people were a bit safer around me. But now it's too much. Look, I've been behaving myself. I haven't had a single other slip-up. Do you think I would risk my place here at Hogwarts like that, really? And even if I did lose control, what could you do to stop me?"

"I would stop you. Make no doubt of it. Me gran taught me how to deal with the likes of you."

Audriell blinked, shocked. She recovered quickly, though. "Well, you obviously missed the lesson on how to handle girls." Though she had made no conscious decision to pull it out, Audriell found herself pointing her ten-inch cherry wand at him, glaring over the tip of it.

Sara pushed Audriell's arm down and put herself between the two. "You're starting to attract a crowd. If you really want to make fools out of yourselves, you'll just have to finish it later. We're already late for Charms and today's the day we're supposed to be learning the Aguamenti Charm!"

This snapped Audriell back into reality. She knew that this was the on that Sara had been most looking forward to, for reasons known only to her. She shrugged almost apologetically at Seamus and strode down the hall without another glance at him.

When they were in class, five points having been taken from each of them for tardiness, Sara immediately started scribbling furiously on a bit of scrap parchment. 'Did you mean for your eyes to glow back there?' it read. Audriell shook her head furiously. "No!" she responded aloud.

"Is there something you have to add to the lesson?" Professor Flitwick asked her, his wand still trailing a stream of gold with which he was illustrating the proper movements to make when performing the spell.

"No, sorry, Professor," she answered hastily, cheeks flushing. Audriell's eyes darted over to Seamus. He was staring at her in apparent consternation.

Flitwick nodded his satisfaction and continued, with an amused glint in his eye, "Now, I'd imagine that today's lesson will run fairly smoothly- after all, how much of an explosion could our friend Mr. Finnegan here cause with water?- but I still must caution you. Now, if you please, begin."

Sara laughed appreciatively and smiled at the flushed Seamus before turning back to her friend. "Dria, it was a little scary, really. You got this look on your face when you were talking to him, like you were about to do... you know, it... again. He has to have noticed, too. Look at him. He's still a bit shaky even now."

And look at him Audriell did. Now that Sara mentioned it, perhaps he was looking a bit paler than usual underneath his embarrassed blush. She glanced at Flitwick and saw that he was watching her with a stern expression on his face. Being that she was in his house, he expected more from her. Deciding that she would worry about Seamus later, she turned to the glass he was supposed to be filling, pointed her wand at it, and said, "Aguamenti."

After class, Audriell hung back a bit, expecting Seamus to wait with her as he had taken to doing lately. To her immense surprise, though, he was one of the first to leave the room. She exchanged looks with Sara and said, "I think I had better go talk to him."

Sara shrugged. "If you think. But wasn't this what you wanted?" She waved farewell and headed off to Arithmancy. Audriell was at a loss. Yes, she had wanted for Seamus to leave her alone, but not this way. It made her feel like some kind of monster, like she was nothing more than a bully. Like she was the kind of thing that Seamus had been trying to protect everyone else from. It felt wrong to leave things like this.

She scooped her books unceremoniously into her satchel and hurried out of the room, running in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. She was unsure of exactly where it was, but if she was quick enough, she thought she might be able to catch him nonetheless.

Audriell caught sight of him just before he made a turn two corridors down. "Seamus!" she called. "Wait!"

The stiffening of his shoulders was the only indication he gave of having heard her. Audriell called out again and doubled her pace. On her way down the hall, she bumped into a first year- who could blame her, honestly? They were so small. But she did manage to catch up with him.

"Seamus, please. Can I just talk with you for a minute?"

"Oh, talk? Is that what you want to do?" he finally responded. Dean Thomas, whom he had been walking with, looked between them with barely disguised amusement.

"Fine," Seamus said when Audriell didn't reply. "You're just lucky you caught me during a free period." Dria decided against saying that he hardly seemed the Arithmancy type.

"Follow me," Dria said. There were altogether too many curious eyes turned toward them where they stood in the corridor. They went up to the astronomy tower, walking in utter silence.

At the top, Audriell perched herself on the edge of her favorite bit of wall, where it had crumbled so that she had the exhilarating feeling of danger. Perhaps, she thought ruefully, this was unwise, given Seamus' evident dislike for her, but she honestly didn't think he seemed like he wanted to hurt her unless she forced his hand.

"I'm sorry," Audriell said after a little silence. She tried and failed to meet his eyes. "Sara told me I got a little... scary back there. I didn't mean to. This is all just so new to me, and I'm freaked out already without having you following my every movement."

"I always thought that there was something abnormal about you, even for a witch," Seamus said, not bothering to acknowledge the apology though his features softened a bit. "I could never figure out what it was."

Audriell was so surprised at this that she blurted out her first thought. "You never seemed to notice me at all."

"I did." This time the silence was longer. Audriell slid down the wall and, cautiously, Seamus joined her, though sitting at a safe distance.

"What's it like?" Seamus finally asked her. She found that she could meet his eyes now, and having so done, found it hard to look away. There was an intensity burning there that was so compelling that words started spilling out of her.

"It's like being charged up with pure energy. It's feeling like you can do absolutely anything, if you only take in enough of it. It's intoxicating. And even when I'm not stealing any of people's emotions, I still can feel them. I still know, every instant, that I have the ability to have that high back."

"But you say you've only ever done it once," Seamus said quietly.

"Yes. On Harry. I didn't know what it was, not at first. Not until it was almost too late." Audriell finally broke their eye contact. She could feel that Seamus was trying very hard to suppress his alarm. He was doing rather well, she thought. Nothing showed on his face.

"I didn't want to believe it," Seamus said," when I heard what had happened. You always seemed so nice, so good."

"What, and now you think I'm not, just because I've got a splash of banshee blood in me?" She had opened herself up completely to him, she thought. And now he dared to insult her. She had half a mind to leave. Seamus reached out a hand and grasped at her wrist before she could stand, though.

"I never said that."

"But it's what you're thinking, isn't it?" Seamus' grip on her was released that instant. He shot to his feet.

"In fact, no." He made to leave but before he could, Dria was there in front of him with a hand on each of his shoulders.

"Then what?" Her expression was pleading and he felt his fear of her melt away. The change was so sudden that, by the time he had recovered, her eyes were already glowing heatedly.

"I want to protect you from yourself," Seamus said simply. Though this was not the answer he would have given just moments before, the words had the ring of absolute, undeniable truth to them. He didn't give her any time to absorb them before he had slipped away from her grasp, instead loosely holding one of her hands in his and pulling her gently toward the stairs. "You've missed lunch. Come on, let's find you something to eat."

Audriell let him lead her down to the Great Hall, where he encouraged her to sit next to him at the Gryffindor table. Dean was there, looking quite as befuddled by this latest development as Audriell felt. "How are you, Audriell?" he asked politely.

Seamus, meanwhile, was now avoiding looking at her altogether, instead focusing enthusiastically on his toast. She cautioned a glance at him before responding, "I'm doing alright."

"And you two have sorted out your differences, is that it?"

"Dean, stop interrogating her, would you?" Seamus snapped.

"It's fine, really," Audriell cut in, anxious not to get Dean in trouble. Seamus continued to look anywhere but at her, instead shoveling food into his mouth. Audriell decided to follow his example. If nothing else, it would remove the pressure she was feeling to make conversation.

An hour later, Morag found Audriell sitting in the common room, doodling mindlessly on what was supposed to be her Potions essay on the Draught of Living Death. He looked over her work, amused. "Since when has there been a correlation between flobberworm mucus and... what is that, a hippogriff?"

Audriell flushed and shoved the parchment into her copy of "Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six," which happened to be handy. "Shove off," she muttered.

"Fine, fine," he replied in an exaggeratedly reasonable voice. "But first, why don't you tell me how it happened that you ate at the Gryffindor table today?"

Audriell flushed. "What, have people been talking about that?"

"Is there a reason they should be?" Morag questioned, dimples flashing. He shook his head at her. "I was just asking because I noticed your absence and happened to catch a glimpse of you there. You're not exactly hard to miss, with that red hair of yours."

Audriell tugged on a bit of hair that had escaped its binds disdainfully and resorted to glaring out the window. She'd had quite enough of handling her classmates for one day.


	3. The Hospital Wing

Seamus had stopped following Audriell. Days ago, this would have been a blessing. Now, she wasn't so sure. She kept finding her gaze wandering back over to wherever he was, kept trying to think of some reason for going over to him.

Her friends noticed her preoccupation but didn't say much about it. They assumed that she was still worried about controlling her powers around the student body. Or, all of them did except for Morag. He had always been more in tune with Dria's thoughts than anyone else was.

One day they were sitting in the library, doing a particularly nasty essay for their Defense Against the Dark Arts class and Morag stood abruptly, announcing that he had promised to meet Terry Boot on the grounds.

"You could have mentioned that before!" Dria said, agitated. She relied on him to proofread when she was finished, just as he relied on her for fact-checking. It was a mutually beneficial partnership and if he left, she was sure she was going to screw something up royally.

"Relax!" Morag told her. "You'll be fine. You know this stuff better than anyone I know." With that, he hurried out of the library. Audriell covered her face in dismay, trying and failing to calm herself. The last bit he'd said was a complete lie. She had missed the lesson on Inferi, which was what she was supposed to be writing about. And a quick glance at the table showed her that, just as she had feared her would, he had taken his notes and- Merlin's beard!- both of their textbooks.

Grumbling to herself, Dria stormed away from her desk and went to look up books on Inferi. The next time he was happy, she thought ruefully, maybe she'd be sure to take a little bit of it.  
This thought brought her to a quick stop. Though she knew that the more positive the feeling someone was radiating, the more delectable it would be, she certainly had no plans to take any emotion, positive or otherwise from anyone. She'd been kidding... right?  
What was she becoming?

Audriell felt an immediate need to see Seamus. She could picture the look of disgust, even fear, that would play on his face when she told him about her urges. That would snap her right out of this. It had to. Otherwise she would just have to leave Hogwarts. Her mother would certainly be pleased. Audriell didn't want to have to leave Hogwarts, but better that than to hurt anyone else.

Seamus would be, Audriell thought, just getting out of Care of Magical Creatures. The small part of her that wasn't panicking started wondering when it was that Audriell had memorized his schedule, but she paid that particular thought no mind.

Dria didn't even bother picking up her books before running out of the library and hurtling down stairwells. She threw herself outside sooner than she would have thought possible and almost ran straight into Dean.  
Audriell managed to catch her balance just in time. "Dean! Where's Seamus?" she demanded, her breath wheezing a bit.

Dean didn't seem to mind at all how rude she was being. On the contrary, he was positively grinning. "You just missed him. He was headed up to the Hospital Wing-"

"Hospital Wing? What's happened?" Audriell asked, cutting him off. Possibilities raced through her mind, each grittier than the last.  
"Relax, it's nothing. Hagrid just thought he had better have Madam Pomfrey look at his Jarvey bites to make sure they don't get infected. You know how he's been about injuries, ever since..." Dean didn't need to finis his sentence. Everyone knew about Draco Malfoy's "serious" injury three years ago.

"Thank you, Dean." Audriell turned to go, but he reached out and caught her wrist.

"Hold on, I'll come with you to the Hospital Wing. I was headed up there, anyway." Seeing no way out of it, Dria nodded her agreement.  
The two walked in companionable silence until Dean said, "Seamus thinks very highly of you, you know."

Dria glanced at him in surprise. "He thinks I'm a monster," she disagreed.

"He only did at first. He doesn't anymore. I don't know what changed. But for ages now, a year at least, he's been insisting that he would work up the nerve to talk to you. He thinks you're brilliant."  
"Aren't you betraying some sort of trust by mentioning this?" Audriell asked, if only to move the topic away from herself. Behind what she hoped was a convincing mask, she was trembling with happiness. Could what Dean was saying be true?

"I don't think I am. The way he's been carrying on is pitiful. I refuse to watch it anymore."

"You're a good friend." Dean glanced over at her to see if she meant it, then gave her a satisfied grin.

"I knew you'd see sense."

They had reached the Hospital Wing. Audriell went straight in, but when she turned around, holding the door open for Dean, she saw that he had disappeared.

She shook her head, smiling, and headed for the single occupied bed.  
Seamus was sitting up, staring disdainfully at the wrapping around his left arm. "The little bugger hardly even got me and the woman's talking about keeping me overnight for observation!" he complained in outrage.

Perhaps he had assumed that it was Dean who had come to visit him, Audriell thought, because when he glanced up, she saw shock written plainly across his Irish features.

"Audriell," he said, sounding strangely strained.

"Well, I had to be sure you weren't going to lose your arm, didn't I?" she said, smiling. Just then it was almost too easy to believe that what Dean had said was true.

He puffed up his chest. "Please, I'm not a pathetic prat like Malfoy." They looked at each other for a moment before a look of minor confusion crossed Seamus' face. Audriell remembered that it was a little strange for her to show up like this, even if it did feel natural.

It had seemed so distant, her worry over the impulse she had had, earlier. But thinking about it brought the feeling of her spite and longing back. Hanging her head, Audriell confessed, "I wanted to sap some emotion from Morag, earlier."

Though Dria was watching Seamus closely for a reaction- specifically, that repulsion that she had so been craving- he did no more than blink once. "And your first reaction was to come find me and confess, was it?"  
"That's a bit of overstatement, to be fair," Dria said. Her biggest defense mechanism in life had always been sarcasm. "First I squashed the impulse to chase after Morag. Then I gave in to panic. Next I questioned my own sanity. And then," she finished with a dramatic wave of her hand, "I went looking for you."

"And you happened to run into Dean," Seamus said with a slight smile on his face.

"Yes."

"And you came rushing up to see me in my hour of need."

"He told me you just got a little bite."

"Little?"

Dria grinned. "Sorry, didn't mean to insult your man pride. I'm sure that it hurts spectacularly."

"Oh, it's nothing," Seamus assured her. They stared at each other for a long moment, one during which many silent conversations seemed to play out.

Finally, feeling that she could put it off no longer, Dria broke the eye contact, focusing instead on her hands, whose fingers were knotted together. "I really thought that telling you would ruin any chance of us talking again."

"Is that something you want?" Dria shook her head slowly, still unable to meet his gaze though she could feel it burning into her. The very air around them seemed to crackle. How, she thought, had Madam Pomfrey not noticed the sudden change in atmosphere and come investigating? When had it gotten so very warm?

"Well, now we're getting somewhere, Dria." Seamus stood and Dria suddenly realized how close to him she had been standing.

"I had really better get back to the library. I've left all of my things and really need to get an essay finished."

"Now there's the Ravenclaw I know." Dria raised her eyes to meet his one last time. Just for an instant, she thought, it was all too easy to imagine that he did know her.

That was, of course, utter foolishness.

Though Seamus had never given her a proper reaction to her confession, Audriell found that she was feeling recharged just from having told him. She no longer felt angry with Morag in the slightest. After all, she had been wanting to speak with Seamus for a while. This had finally given her the opportunity.

It helped that, upon her return to the library, she found her stolen book sitting atop the rest of her things with an apology note on it. In it, Morag had promised her an impressive supply of licorice wands the next time they were allowed in Hogsmeade. What more could she ask for?


	4. At the Lake

It was understandable, Dria thought, that she be a little distracted. This had to be her fault. After all, she was the one who had gone and changed things. She was the one who started getting caught up in her own thoughts, not even noticing when her friends were coming and going most of the time.

It was equally understandable, though to be honest, much less expected, that Sara start to subtly drift in the direction of new friends, away from Dria.

It was all perfectly understandable, but that didn't make it hurt any less. She and Sara had been best friends since their second year, and had been on good terms since the year before that. One little rough period should not have been enough to shake them right to the foundation like this.

Audriell told herself that it was fine, that she really shouldn't be spending too much time around people, anyway. After all, what if she got upset again and really did hurt someone?

So she took Sara's separation as a sign and withdrew herself further. Audriell went to class and she went to the library to study. When she could handle no more, she would go straight to her dormitory for sleep. Occasionally, she would need a change of scenery, so she would go outside, to a spot on the the grounds that was always secluded. This routine Dria was able to keep up with for three straight weeks.

One day, it was like a fog had been lifted from her. She looked at herself in the mirror and noted the deep purple marks under her eyes, indicating that she was working too hard and sleeping too little. She saw that she was looking haggard, and that her frame had passed from being willowy to being nastily thin. Her hips jutted out disconcertingly and her uniform top slouched unflatteringly. Audriell's prized red locks were hanging limply around a face that looked like it had not changed expression in ages.

It was, in short, time that she make an adjustment, and a big one, to her life.

To start off, Dria used cosmetics for the first time in years, attempting to cover up the signs of overexertion. She put a little blush on her cheeks, and the color made her look almost healthy again. At breakfast, instead of sitting at the very end of her table, down where no one ever even thought to approach her, Audriell made the scary walk over to where she used to sit, next to Terry Boot and across from Morag. Michael Corner, who was on her left, did a literal, very obvious double-take that made Audriell blush for real underneath her painted-on face. Anthony Goldstein, who used to be her study partner for Transfiguration, grinned easily at her. He was the only one of her old friends who didn't look the least bit surprised that she had come back to them. Because of this, it was Anthony that Audriell chose to try speaking to.

"How about that last Potions essay?" she said, adding a little smile at the end. "I had to stay up half the night just to get the research for it done."  
"Me too! I don't know what he was thinking, giving us an essay on a new potion and expecting sixteen inches' worth in two days."

Audriell was quite conscious of the others staring blankly at her still. It was to be expected, she supposed. After all, most of them had never quite gotten over the news that she was part banshee... and three weeks was eons when you were growing away from someone.

"Hey, you mind taking a look at what I've got before class? There's a bit about the gurdyroot that I think I might have mixed up a little," Anthony said. Now Dria's smile wasn't forced. It was almost like old times.

"Absolutely! Do you mind taking a look at my introduction?" They both dug through our bags, pulling out the essays. Now, this kind of conversation was so commonplace in Ravenclaw that it lulled the others into a sense of rightness, of security. Conversations sprung up, silverware dinged against dishes, and Audriell was back.

It wasn't until later, partway through that day's Ancient Runes lesson, that Audriell realized that there was one bit of her venture back into the realm of the living that hadn't gone quite right. Morag had not spoken a word to her, not all day. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time he had so much as looked at her.

This startling realization knocked the knowledge that this was at least mostly her own fault. In that moment, she felt none of the vague guilt that she had carried since this whole sorry mess had started. It had been replaced by contempt and the sense that she had been wronged.  
After class, she hunted Morag down. He was, strangely, sitting with a few Gryffindors. One of them was Seamus Finnegan. Audriell didn't know how to handle seeing him outside of class, so she focused her attention on Morag.

"You owe me licorice wands, I think," she said. Dria didn't bother forcing a smile for him- he would know that it was fake, anyway. Always, her friend had been able to read her perfectly.

Despite her serious expression, Morag burst into a grin. He rifled through his satchel for only a moment before producing an impressively large bag of licorice. Silently, he offered them to her.

Not quite sure how to react, Audriell took the bag from him. "Thanks," she said quietly. Suddenly, she was all too aware of the way that her right arm was hanging awkwardly at her side, of her hair, which hadn't been touched since that morning and had to be getting quite wild, of the strange way that her clothes were hanging on her. Shyness forced her into silence.

Morag understood this. He also understood that the separation had been as hard on Audriell as it had been on him, despite the funny little fact of it being her fault. He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, feeling how frail she had become. She nuzzled her head into his chest, suddenly feeling like she was going to cry.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. The words were muffled, but he understood nonetheless.

"I need to get to class," Morag said with visible regret, "but do you fancy a game of chess after dinner?" They released each other and stood, grinning.

"Yeah! Can I be white?"

"I'll think about it." He started to turn away, then stopped. "You know, Seamus was just telling me how much trouble he's having turning vinegar into wine. You've always been good at that sort of thing."  
Audriell looked to Seamus. He was staring straight at her, his eyes fixed on her own red ones. Dria was unused to direct eye contact- after all, who would want to look at hers? They were creepy- and found herself quite captivated.

It was impossible to tell how long they stood that way, but Dria later thought that it must have seemed longer than it was. Finally, Seamus said, "Oh, really? Would you mind helping me out a bit?"

In an effort to look casual, Dria shrugged. "Sure. Is now good for you, though? It's my only free period today."

Seamus smiled at her and took a step away from his friends. "Lead the way."

Together, the pair went to the Charms classroom, which was conveniently empty. Settling down with two vials of vinegar, they each attempted the charm. The vial in front of Audriell instantly purpled. Seamus', however, bubbled a bit before a curdled looking mass floated up to the top.

"I'll admit, I'm a little impressed," Audriell said to him, attempting to choke back a laugh. "I didn't know that could happen."

"I did," Seamus confessed. "It's happened a time or two before."

"Try again, why don't you? I'll watch closer this time."  
Seamus attempted the charm again and Audriell noted that his wand was making an odd flicking motion at the end. The same strange mass bubbled out of the vinegar again.

"Alright, I think I've got it. One more try, please." Before Seamus could do anything, Dria wrapped her hand around his where it held his wand. He glanced up at her for the briefest of instants before focusing his attention back on the task at hand. When he said the incantation, she guided his hand through the proper wand movement. The liquid in his flask changed to he same purple as hers, though there were still unappealing masses floating on it from before.

"Blimey. You ever thought about going into teaching?" Seamus asked. Audriell thought that he was only slightly kidding.

"Can't say I have. I did go through a period in third year where my greatest ambition was to be a curse breaker, though."

"But that's not what you want to do now?" he asked. Dria liked that he didn't seem at all surprised or concerned like anyone else she had ever shared this ambition with.

"The trouble is that I would almost certainly have as good a chance at breaking the curses as I would of breaking myself." She found that it was quite beyond her not to meet his eyes just then. The way he looked at her was something she had no experience with. Rather than seeing an image, she felt like he was looking at who she really was. It was a wondrous thing.

"How about you? Have you thought about what you'd want to do?" She felt that it was only fair to ask. Besides, feeling like maybe he knew her made her want to know him.

"I thought maybe I'd get into architecture. I destroy enough things. Might as well build some back up too, right?" Audriell smiled. She liked the sound of that, the sense it made.

"I think you'll be good at it."

He considered her for a moment and must have decided that she meant it, because he said in a grave voice, "Thank you."

Audriell found herself reluctant to leave his company. She must have been lonely, she reasoned. Now that her self-imposed exile had been lifted, she had to make up for lost socialization.

"I haven't been by the lake in a while. Walk down with me?" she offered. Clearly, their Charms session was over. Mission accomplished, and all that.

Seamus did seem a little surprised by the offer, but Audriell thought that maybe mixed in with that was a little happiness, too.

On the walk down, Audriell remembered one of the good bits about having hid herself away from everyone- the impulse to fill silence was never there when you were alone.

Still, Seamus didn't seem too bothered by the quiet, so Dria tried to shake off her discomfort.

It didn't work.

She was just opening her mouth- to say what, she still hadn't decided- when he spoke up. "What's been going on with you lately?"

For a moment, she thought about asking what he meant, if only to buy time. But she could tell from the look on her face that evasion would get her nowhere. "I've been busy with my schoolwork."

"Dria." This was the first time that he had called her by her nickname. Somehow, that made her feel like they were much closer than they really were. "I know that you're in Ravenclaw and all, but really, there's no way you were working that hard. You disappeared. If you weren't in class, I couldn't find you anywhere."

"I spent most of my time in the library," she protested. Had he really been looking for her? Well, if that was the case, it would have been a little foolish to have missed the library. As he had said, she was a Ravenclaw.

"I looked there." A look of unease passed across his face. Audriell decided against telling him that she had sat in the middle of one of the stacks in the back, near the books on different kinds of magical fungi, so as not to be seen. Only one person had gone down that aisle in all the time that she'd been there, a Gryffindor called Longbottom, and he had paid her no mind.

"Strange," was all she decided to say on the matter. Audriell tried to repress her next question, but couldn't help herself. "Why were you looking for me?"

"I was worried. You've been looking very unwell in class." Seamus had seriously considered following her to see where it was that she was always disappearing to, but had never worked up the courage. After all, it wasn't something that he had had much luck with in the past.

"I've been a little down."

"You've been beating yourself up, you mean," he surmised. From what Morag had been telling him, it sounded like Audriell had been punishing herself. For what, he had wondered.

He'd had to think a moment before remembering that she was something that many- himself included, except where she was concerned- feared above all else. Lately, he just hadn't been able to look at her as a banshee. She was back to who she'd always been in his eyes- brilliant and lovely and far too hard on herself.

"No." She reconsidered this and amended, "Well, maybe a little."

"I'm going to be watching you very closely," he warned her. "If you do this again, I'm not letting you get away with it next time."

She raised her brows. "You don't even know me."

At this, Seamus was quiet. In fact, he had been watching her for years now. He knew things he bet her closest friends hadn't even noticed. Things like the way her right wrist always ended up ink smeared when she got really focused on an assignment, or the way that she would tug on her right ear whenever she was frustrated. Her not knowing him didn't mean he didn't know her.

They reached the lake and both let the subject drop, just as they dropped unceremoniously onto the ground. It was silent out here, except for the splashing of a few first years who had decided to take their chances against the giant squid and go swimming.

"Thanks again for helping me today," Seamus said, leaning back onto his elbows so that he could watch the clouds.

"Don't worry about it, really." If he was going to keep bringing it up, she would quit helping him out. It was embarrassing. Audriell glanced over at Seamus and leaned back the way he had done. When he saw this, he grinned.

"Do you ever wish that you weren't a wizard at all?" she asked. Lately she had been thinking about this a lot. If she was non-magical, at least these people wouldn't keep looking at her like she was some kind of criminal. At least then she wouldn't have to spend every day worried that she would hurt someone else.

At least people like Seamus wouldn't be repulsed by her.

Seamus took his time before answering. Dria didn't know why, because all he had to say was, "Never."

"Maybe I'm the only one, then," she said to herself. Of course, being right next to her, he did hear and was concerned by this.

"What you are has helped shape who you've become, Dria. And who you've become is good. It would be a shame if that person had never existed."

"I hurt people!" she protested.

At this, he paled a little. "I thought it was just Harry."

"You don't have to sap someone's emotions out to hurt them," she replied, thinking of Morag. She had pushed him away. She thought of her mother, who had been ill with worry ever since the start of term, simply because Audriell had put her foot down and demanded to continue her education here. She thought of her ex, Jeremy, whose heart she'd broken just last spring.

"Sure, but even if you have hurt people, it wasn't on purpose."

Audriell decided against continuing the argument. After all, it wasn't a goal of hers to push Seamus away. If he was willing to look past her problems... Well, let him, she thought.

A strange sensation started building up in Audriell. She was choking with panic, she could feel every nerve in her body like all of her had been jammed into an electric current. She couldn't move, couldn't think past the pain, the intensity of it.

Seamus heard the screams coming from the swimming first years and jumped to his feet. Most of the screams were wordless shrieks of horror, but one of the children kept hollering, "Find him! Find him now!" Seamus thought he saw a stream of black hair bobbing in and out of the water- looking for someone.

Seamus had already taken two steps toward the lake and was bracing himself to jump when the most horrific sound he had heard in his life erupted from behind him. It was Audriell. She was on her knees, hands clawing at her hair, mouth wide open in a soul-tearing scream. It was a sound to tear away at the fibers of your very self. It made him want to weep, made him want to scream along with her. It made him forget, for a moment, who he even was.

She did not stop to draw breath, but kept screaming.

Seamus jumped in the water. There was nothing he could do for her, nothing except try to prevent the death that she was predicting.


	5. Wish Me Luck

Seamus had never managed to open his eyes underwater before. Dean had always made fun of him for it. Today, the reflex that kept his eyes tightly squeezed shut had disappeared and he looked around in awe. He kept his wand tightly gripped in his hand even though he had not yet mastered the art of wordless magic.

He looked around for some hint of the drowning child but saw nothing.

At least under the water he didn't have to hear the awful scream coming from Audriell Seamus doubted that he would ever hear such an awful noise again.  
Just as he was starting to think he was going to have to go up for air, Seamus caught sight of what might have been a swirling set of robes. He hurried toward the bit of flora that they had become entangled in, managing to break his head over the water for a second to draw breath, and found the first year.

It wasn't hard work to rip away the plant and heave the boy up and out of the water, where Professor McGonagall stood waiting. Her wand was drawn and Seamus wondered what spell she had been planning on casting- what spell he could have used to avoid diving into the lake like this.

The relief of having brought up the boy and of having McGonagall there to deal with it now erased his panic. Without that buffer, he began to feel the deep cold that had set into him from his impromptu dive. It didn't matter, at least, not after he glanced over at Audriell and saw that she was lying on the ground, limp and pale and looking ghastly.

"Dria!" he called as he rushed over. She didn't stir. Seamus collapsed on the ground beside her and gently lifted her up so that her head rested on his lap. Her skin, usually impressively white, was now eerily corpse-like. More than he'd been when the screaming had first started, more than he'd been when he was in the water searching, Seamus was scared.

He looked around for someone to help. She was still alive. He could feel that from the beating of her heart underneath his hand. But something was obviously wrong. Professor McGonagall was, naturally, crouched over the child he'd pulled out of the lake. No other teachers had come out yet.

Seamus hoisted Audriell up and cradled her as he ran back to the castle. He ran faster than he had in his life, even with the additional weight. It wasn't until later that he would feel the burn in his arms, feel the tightness in his calves. For now, he simply sprinted up one staircase and the next, desperate to get her to the hospital wing.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey demanded the instant he had thrown the door open.

"There was screaming and a first year was hurt and she was screaming too and I had to leave her, just for a couple of minutes, to pull the kid out of the water and she was like this when I got back," Seamus said hurriedly. His breath was coming in great gasps now and he sat uneasily on the nearest bed after depositing Audriell on it. His eyes did not for an instant leave her, though he was hacking and coughing from the exertion. Meanwhile, Pomfrey was bending over her, checking her vitals and tutting to herself.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked once he had his breath back.

"I dont' know," Madam Pomfrey said. She walked away from Dria's limp form and headed in to the office.  
"Well, keep looking, then!" Seamus told her angrily.

She stuck her head out of the office to give him a piercing glare. "Due to her... unusual circumstances, I'm owling her parents. Perhaps they will have some clue as to what this is about."

"The person to owl might not be her parents. What about her grandmother, who was the banshee that started all of this? Or her brother, who might have had this happen to him before?"

"Policy states that I must first contact the parents." She said this with an apology on her face, but it wasn't enough for Seamus.  
He shot a regretful look at Audriell, pausing only to adjust her arms on the bed so that it looked less like she was an invalid and more like she was asleep before sprinting out of the Hospital Wing.

"Harry!" he called, bursting into the Gryffindor common room not much later. Thankfully, he spotted the chap by the fireplace, sitting with Ron. "Can I borrow your owl? I don't want to use the school ones, they're too slow."

Harry looked wildly surprised but nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. Why-"

Seamus was out the door before Harry even had a chance to finish his question.

Not ten minutes later, Seamus had returned to the Hospital Wing, only to find the door barred. He pounded on the door until Madam Pomfrey opened up, looking exhausted.

"I'm sorry, Mister Finnegan, but things are just a little too crowded in here without you hovering about."

"I'll be good! Please, ma'am, I'll stay by her bed and I won't move, won't even speak. Just please, don't keep me out." She passed a critical eye over him before nodding with a heavy sigh.

"But don't you be giving me any reasons to regret this, Finnegan." He didn't hear the warning, as he had already darted past her and was perched on Audriell's bedside. She hadn't moved at all since he had left her.

A time of waiting ensued. Seamus kept his word, not leaving Audriell for an instant- of course, he wouldn't have wanted to even if he had been allowed. At one point, he heard Madam Pomfrey telling Audriell's friends that they would have to come back later, that she wasn't allowing anyone else in at the moment. Though he had already been allowed in, Seamus did his best to disappear in that moment, just in case she took it into her head to send him away.

And he kept on waiting.

At one point, he swore he felt her fingers twitch against his, but she when she didn't move again, he put it down to wishful thinking.  
Eventually, it was impossible to say how much later, the doors opened and another visitor gained entrance. Seamus knew who he was immediately, not because they had met before, but because of his stark resemblance to Audriell. That pale skin, those red eyes, even the hair color and the proud cheekbones... This had to be Audriell's brother. Seamus resolutely held his position by Audriell's bed, keeping his fingers intertwined with hers.

Her brother didn't even seem to notice.

He walked over to the bed, running his hand over her cheek and briefly touching her hair. "For how long has she been out?"

Seamus glanced up, more surprised than he should have been to be addressed. "Since one."

The man slowly nodded. "She will wake up soon," he predicted. Though Seamus didn't know whether there was any logic or whether it was simply wishful thinking, he felt the tight ball of tension he'd been battling all afternoon loosen its hold on him, just a little.

"I'm Bartholomew," the man said. He held out his hand and lifted a brow in challenge. Seamus released Audriell's hand to shake it. He found that afterward he didn't quite have the nerve required to hold her hand again and instead sat there, feeling awkward.

"You were there when she started the screaming?" Seamus thought that he spoke with what might have been a faint Brazilian accent and wondered how he had picked one up while Audriell still spoke with a soft Irish lilt.

"Yeah."

"Tell me the story? I have only been given a vague outline of what happened." So Seamus did.

"Thank you," Bartholomew said after he'd finished. "For telling me what happened and for owling me. It is nice to know that my sister has people looking out for her. She's usually too busy doing what she can for others that she loses herself in the process." Seamus nodded. Yes, he had noticed that about her, too.  
After that they seemed to have run out of things to talk about, here in the great, silent wing. Seamus found himself silently begging harder than ever that Dria wake up soon.

"Finnegan, this is getting ridiculous. Do you really expect me to allow you to stay up here through dinner? I'm the school nurse! It's my responsibility to do what I can to keep students healthy. I will not condone malnourishment." Seamus had been arguing against leaving for the past five minutes. He had made no progress.

"Will you let me come back after I've eaten?" he finally said, resigned.

"Perhaps. But not for too long. I'm sure that you have schoolwork piling up right now. I shouldn't have let you stay for as long as you have. Still, these are special circumstances." She pursed her lips and glanced back at Dria, who looked like she had always been and would always be asleep. Her brother, used to a different time zone, had passed out on the bed next to hers.

"Thank you, ma'am." Seamus took off, getting to the Great Hall as quickly as he could. He would be upset if he missed her waking up.

What Seamus did not reckon on was the crowd that ran up to him as soon as he entered the Great Hall. Among them were Dean, Morag and his twin, Isodel, a small blonde girl who was clutching at Morag's arm whose name might have been Sara, and a few other Ravenclaws whose names he had never learned.  
"What's going on?" Morag demanded. "No one's been allowed in to see her except you." His tone was accusatory.

"She's still unconscious, but her brother came and he doesn't seem worried- seems to think that she'll be waking up soon." Of course, Seamus thought, this estimate had been given two hours ago.

He pushed past everyone and sat at the closest end of the Gryffindor table, hurriedly filling his mouth before anyone could ask any more questions. Nearly everyone had gone to sit back down, but Dean, Morag, and the blonde who was clinging to him followed.

"You look like you need to sleep," Dean commented. "Leave it for today. You being there isn't helping any." Seamus could tell, though, that his friend didn't actually expect Seamus to take his advice.

"Everyone's talking about what happened. I could hear her from the Transfiguration room," the blonde said, her eyes wide with fear.

Morag nodded. "It was awful. No one knew what was happening, and then there you were, carrying her in..."

"She looked dead," said the blonde.

"But she isn't, Sara." Morag put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him, taking comfort from the contact.

By this time, Seamus had eaten as much as he could stand to at the moment. He stood and made his way to the door, the three still trailing after him. He turned to them angrily. "If you lot are all with me, I bet Pomfrey won't let me back in. I'll tell you more when I know more."

"No, mate, we're coming with you. You know she's not going to let you stay long either way," Dean said with a sort of finality that signaled an end to the discussion.

"I didn't even think that you and Dria were that good of friends," Sara said a moment later.

Seamus colored. "I just feel responsible. I left her there on her own, and it was too much for her. Maybe if she hadn't been alone..." They were just reaching the door to the Hospital Wing, and Seamus heard voices.

To be specific, Dria's voice. She was talking with her brother.

"Audriell!" Seamus rushed in. He was at her bedside in an instant, but as soon as he got there, he felt horribly awkward. Sara was right, he thought; he and Dria were friendly acquaintances, nothing more.

But Audriell was smiling at him shyly. "Seamus, hi. Barty told me all about how you helped me, how you stayed here." Seamus found that he suddenly couldn't meet her eyes, though they were burning into him. "Thank you."

"It was nothing."

"If that's what you want to pretend, I guess I can go along with it for a bit." Her gaze moved away from Seamus and he would have sworn he felt a little bit colder because of it.

Her eyes landed next on Sara, who fidgeted uncomfortably. "Hi, Dria," she said in a soft voice. "I was so worried."

Audriell raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what to say to you right now," she admitted.

Sara hung her head a little. "I know that I haven't been around much-"

"Much? No. You haven't been around at all. But you know what? That's fine. If you want to push me away, do it. But don't come up here trying to make excuses. Let me just say that I am not in the mood. It's been a long enough day without all that."

Madam Pomfrey glanced over, her gaze disapproving. Seamus feared that she was about to come over and kick them out for upsetting Dria. "Audriell," he said, stepping closer to her. He hadn't meant to speak, didn't have anything to say to her that he felt comfortable having all of these people hear. It was enough, though. Their eyes locked and he drew comfort from her steady gaze. She was taking all of this much better than he had.

Audriell yawned and glanced over at her brother. "I think it would be best for us to let her get some rest," he said. "Come. I will return in the morning," he promised, and kissed her forehead.

Everyone followed Bartholomew out of the room. They all said their goodnights and Dean stood expectantly. Seamus found himself rooted to the ground. Bartholomew was staring intently at him. He wanted to know why.

"Seamus, would you walk with me a bit?" Bartholomew asked. He started down the hallway, not waiting for a response.

"I'll catch up with you later," Seamus told Dean. He caught up to Bartholomew and the pair walked in silence down the hallway and along another.

It wasn't until they reached a stairwell that Bartholomew said to Seamus, "I need you to show me the way to Professor Dumbledore's office."

Seamus almost sighed in relief but managed to catch himself. He didn't want Audriell's brother realizing just how nervous he was. "I can get you there, but I don't know the password."

"I do," Bartholomew assured him. "We have a meeting, he and I." When Seamus didn't reply, Bartholomew said, "Aren't you at least a little bit curious?"

"I am," Seamus confirmed, "but I reckon that if you want me to know something, you'll tell me." He could tell that Bartholomew was surprised by this response.

"I think that Audriell will be unhappy with me for this, but I am transferring into Hogwarts. I had a job playing Quidditch in Brazil, but there are more jobs out there and she needs me here."

"She is going to be okay, yeah?" Seamus asked.

"I am starting to wonder whether you're too concerned about her," Bartholomew said, raising a single eyebrow, "but of course she'll be alright. I went through this, too. It wasn't pretty, but it had to happen at some point."

"What exactly happened today?"

"You need to understand something for me to explain this. The reason for a banshee's scream is that she is taking in too much emotion to handle. It is painful, feeling so much. That boy, he was drowning this morning, yes? She was feeling that. Once the floodgates open, it is very hard to stop sucking out the emotions. She had never experienced it before, she didn't even know what was happening. Her body couldn't take it, so it shut down the part of her that was taking it all in.

"In the future, it will not affect her like this. She will be stronger. Still, I know that she was badly shaken. I want to be here to keep an eye on her." The look that Bartholomew gave Seamus implied that she was not the only one he would be watching.

Seamus didn't care right then. He couldn't feel his apprehension of Bartholomew past his relief. Audriell was going to be alright. Understanding what had happened took away a lot of the horror of that morning.

They reached the gargoyles marking the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "I'll leave you here, then," Seamus said. "Good night."

"Thanks, Seamus. Wish me luck with my Sorting!"


	6. Lopsided

Seamus had a horrible moment about an hour later when he thought he saw Bartholomew strut into the Gryffindor common room. This was followed by an even more horrible moment when he realized that that was, indeed, what he was seeing. Dean was laughing as he watched Seamus' reaction, but when Bartholomew headed straight toward the two of them, his laughter faltered.  
Bartholomew gracefully dropped into the armchair next to Dean's. He was grinning.

"Gryffindor, eh?" Dean said. He tended to resort to stating the obvious whenever he was at a loss for words. Usually it bothered Seamus, but right now, he was just glad to have the silence filled. He began to see why Dean did it.

Bartholomew nodded. "I have to say, I was hoping for Ravenclaw so that I could keep a better eye on Audriell... but this is a place I could get used to." He looked around the room, clearly impressed.  
"You don't look like you're young enough to be a student," Seamus said bluntly.

"I'm not that much older. I took a year off of school to play Quidditch. I mostly figured that if I needed my NEWTs, I'd drop back into school for a bit, but I never really planned on it. Should have seen this coming, though. Honestly, what was my mother thinking, Sending Audriell here on her own?"

"I get the idea that Audriell did it so that she could look after a friend of hers. And to be stubborn." Seamus looked over at Dean in surprise. Since when did he know more about Audriell than Seamus did? And why hadn't he shared?

"That sounds about right," Bartholomew said. He looked around the room. Some of the first years were heading up to bed. That didn't seem like such a bad idea to him. "I'm off to bed. I'll see you in the morning, fellas."

Seamus waited until Bartholomew was definitely out of earshot before leaning in close to Dean. "What was that about?"

Dean grinned lopsidedly. "That guy Morag? He's close to Audriell. We got to talking the other day..."

"Why?"

"I've been worried about you, mate," Dean said, shrugging. "Morag's been telling me that Audriell's seemed distracted lately. The drama with that girl Sara doesn't help, either," Dean added thoughtfully.

"What about her?" Seamus felt his temper rise. It seemed like everyone lately had something to say about Audriell, and none of it was positive. He had always thought that Sara and Audriell were good friends. That meant that she had the potential to cause the most harm.

Dean gave Seamus a look. "Talk to Audriell about it if you want to know."

"You're a bleeding git, you know that?" Seamus was irritated, but he grinned as he said this.  
Dean scratched his head. "I'm no more a git than you are a moron." He glanced across the room, toward where Parvati Patil was sitting with her friend Lavender. Her dark hair was pooled on the desk in front of her and the two girls had their heads bent together in a whispered discussion.  
"Off to bed with you. Maybe if she sees me sitting here on my own, she'll come over. Go on."

Seamus shook his head, smiling. This was something of a ritual between the two. Usually Seamus refused, but he was exhausted. Bed didn't sound like such a bad idea.

Styx, Seamus' cat, was collapsed across his pillow. Seamus smiled at the feline, burying his hands in his thick black fur. "Oy, move over, would you? You've no idea the day I've had." The cat lifted its head enough to eye him solemnly before dropping it back contentedly on the pillow.

Seamus shook his head. "You know, I saved a life today," he said to Styx as he lay down, resting his head on top of the cat. He shifted uncomfortably. He had, hadn't he? It didn't feel that way. He still didn't even know who the kid was and had barely thought about him all day. No, he had been too busy worrying about Audriell for that. She really had looked dead, lying there on the sand.  
It had been ages since he had first taken a fancy to her, but recently, things had changed. Thoughts of her consumed him. He paid as much attention to her in their shared classes as he did to the teacher and it took no effort at all for him to close his eyes and imagine her own.

It was unfathomable, how easy it had been to let her wind her way into his life. How easily he had accepted her unusual heritage and the difficulties it brought. How much he had come to adore those intense red eyes of hers, eyes that marked her as fantastically different.

In the morning, he promised to himself as he drifted off to sleep, he would visit her. They would talk about Sara and how she felt about Bartholomew coming to stay and about the strange events of today. But that was all for the morning, and for now, he was asleep.

***

Audriell opened her eyes to find another set, identical to hers, staring back at her.  
"You always were an early riser," she said to her brother, grinning.

He smiled back at her for a moment. "I'm not staying here long," he said to her, "I just wanted to see how you were feeling."

Audriell's eyes widened so much that they swallowed the rest of her face up. "What, I have to be in a coma for you to be in the same place as me?"

"You're saying you'd rather I stayed?" Bartholomew asked. If she weren't so busy being upset, she might have caught the wicked glint in his eyes.

"Of course!"

"Good, because I've just transferred to Hogwarts. I'm a Gryffindor now. I only meant that I was going to head down to breakfast."

Audriell blinked, unsure of how to react. Then she smiled her brightest smile, the one that made everything seem to light up. Seamus walked in just then, so this image is the one he was treated to.  
Bartholomew smiled knowingly at him and tugged affectionately at a lock of Audriell's hair. "Later, sis." As he passed Seamus on his way out, Bartholomew winked at him. Seamus wished that he would make up his mind about him. Half the time, he seemed to enjoy that Seamus cared about his sister. The other half, though, he looked at Seamus as a threat.

The door shut behind Bartholomew and Seamus took the seat that he had begun to think of as his own. It was positioned so that he was level with Audriell's head, able to soak in all of the warmth of her smile.

"How are you?" Seamus asked. The question seemed silly with her looking so happy, but he wanted to be sure. Besides, what else was there to say?

"Much better. I'm working on getting Madam Pomfrey to let me go in time for breakfast." She said this last bit with a raised voice.

Madam Pomfrey peeked her head out of her office, smiling fondly. "I suppose if it's really that important to you, you can go. But dear, I don't know if the Great Hall is so good an idea right now. Think of all of the people there."

Audriell grimaced. "I know, but I think I'll be able to handle it. I've got to face everyone some time and besides, Bart's there." She was already shoving the blankets off of herself, stretching luxuriously in the bed.

The look she gave to Seamus as she skipped out of the room was inviting. He followed.  
Once they were a safe distance away from the Hospital Wing, Audriell stopped and said to Seamus, "What she fails to mention is that I've already eaten. I just wanted out of there, and soon. Walk down to the lake with me?"

The look Seamus gave her was skeptical, and she laughed. "I bet there won't be any more drowning going on there this morning," she assured him. "And according to Bart, it won't affect me like that anymore. You have to break before you can get stronger, he says."

"I'm not sure you've gotten to the stronger part of that, Dria," Seamus told her. "You're still as pale as death." As pale as a banshee, he thought silently, knowing better than to vocalize this particular thought.

"I'm fine," she snapped. Her walk took on a clipped, staccato quality. He hastened to catch up.  
When they reached the lake, Audriell dropped herself onto the ground in the precise spot where she'd passed out the day before. Seamus sat next to her and took a moment to admire the way that the soft morning light glanced off of the water.

"I don't know why the first years were so keen on swimming," Seamus said to her. "It's bloody cold in there."

"They probably just wanted an excuse to wear something other than these cloaks. Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in mine."

They sat in silence for a while before Seamus remembered what Dean had said about Sara. "What's the story with that friend of yours, Sara?" he asked.

Audriell's shoulders hunched a bit. "I think she's not my friend anymore."

"You always seemed so close," Seamus hedged. She refused to meet his gaze.

"We always were. I don't know what happened." She shook her head almost angrily. "That's a lie. I do. She doesn't like that I'm a... that I'm different."

"A lot of people don't," Seamus told her. His words had the intended effect- her eyes latched onto his. "And those are the people you're better off without. Look at all of the ones you still have."  
Audriell rolled her eyes. "You sound like a self-help book."

"Sure, but I'm right, aren't I?"

"I never said I was upset about it. I don't need help." Her eyes shifted so that he couldn't read them anymore. "I'm fine," she asserted.

Seamus debated for a second before replying, "You didn't seem so fine last night." Audriell didn't speak for a while, and when she did, it was to change the subject. Though they talked for a while of the professors they had and the food in the Great Hall and muggle sports, her mind didn't wander too far from what Seamus had said. He was right, she admitted to herself. She needed to talk to Sara.

***

Sara paced in the common room. She was relieved that Audriell would be in the Hospital Wing for the night. Now she could have Morag to herself without feeling guilty.

Morag wasn't himself, though, and was hardly paying attention to her at all. She might as well not have gone up with him to visit Audriell, for all the good it had done.

"She's fine," Sara snapped again. "Even her brother says so."  
Morag gave her a look. "Today was scary. My nerves are just shot. I know that she's alright now, but what if it happens again later? And what if, that time, it's worse?"

"Then it's worse. Worrying about it isn't going to make a difference."  
Morag shook his head. "I'm going to take a bit of a walk, I think."  
Sara grinned. "Now that's more like it. I'll come with you."  
"No, Sara. I want to clear my head a bit. You're right, I'm thinking too much right now. Worrying too much. I want to be alone."

He left and Sara sat down on the nearest chair, huffing. She had worked up a really good pout when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around, anticipating Morag, but was disappointed. Anthony Golding stood there, looking at her with a serious expression.  
"What?" she snapped.

"Leave Audriell alone, would you?"

She stared at him. "We've been best friends for years," she said, managing to cut the malice out of her tone.

"You used to be, yes," Anthony conceded. "But not anymore. Do you think people really haven't noticed? You want nothing to do with her. So stop getting her hopes up, especially when she's had a day like today."

"Who are you to be defending her? She doesn't need you. Audriell's always been able to take care of herself." Sara thought back on the time an arrogant Gryffindor had asked Dria out- no, told her that she'd be going out with him. Audriell had hexed his nose into growing so big that he'd fallen forward from the weight. "I still care about her," Sara said. It was true.

"Then what's been going on?" Anthony asked, sitting next to Sara and leaning in close. He was genuinely intersted in what she had to say, Sara realized. Knowing that made her warm with pleasure.

"My mum," Sara said. "She told me a couple of months ago- after that day in Potions- that I couldn't be hanging around Dria anymore. She's dangerous."

Anthony drew away from her reflexively. "What, and you let her?"

Sara glared at him. She shouldn't have expected him to understand, not with the way Audriell had him all twisted up. "She's right. Besides, you remember what happened right after that? Audriell pulled away from everyone, you and me included. She didn't want anything to do with us. You can't blame me for not bullying her into talking to me."

"Yes, I can." Anthony stood up. "If you really did care about her, you would have seen how much she needed you then. And you let her down." Anthony gave her one last sad look before turning his back on Sara and leaving her alone.


End file.
